OREGON: HRC Co-Founder Terry Bean Charged With Molesting 15 Year-Old Boy

Human Rights Campaign and Victory Fund co-founder Terry Bean, 66, was arrested in Oregon yesterday on sex abuse charges involving a 15 year-old boy. Via Williamette Week:

Law enforcement sources familiar with the case say Bean will be charged with two counts of sodomy in the third degree, a felony, and sex abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor. He will be arraigned later in Lane County, where the crimes allegedly occurred in 2013. The arrest comes after a six-month investigation that began with allegations Bean secretly made video recordings of men having sex in his bedroom. As WW reported in June, Bean accused a former lover, Kiah Lawson, of attempting to extort him over the discovery of a hidden camera. In the spring, Bean sought to keep the allegations secret and tried to reach a $40,000 settlement with Lawson.

After WW began asking questions, Bean went to the police asking them to investigate his allegations. Bean also handed over to police what he said was evidence of additional illegal activity by Lawson and others. Lawson told WW that early this year he had discovered a hidden camera in a smoke detector above Bean's bed. Lawson claimed he was in more than one video that was made without his knowledge, and that video recording also captured at least a half dozen men “in a state of nudity engaged in intimate acts with [Bean].” At the time, Bean’s attorney, Kristen Winemiller, denied the camera had been used for any illegal or improper purpose, and that it had been installed because Bean had been the victim of theft. Winemiller said Lawson was extorting Bean.

A multimillionaire real estate developer, Bean raised more more than anyone in his state for the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama, who has reportedly hosted Bean on Air Force One. News of Bean's arrest has already rocketed around Teabagistan, with Matt Barber and Bryan Fischer tweeting out exulting reports. Scott Lively will appear on Fischer's radio program today to perform a celebratory dance. Bean's lawyer has issued a statement declaring that yesterday's arrest is linked to the above-cited extortion claims and that Bean will be exonerated.

UPDATE: Anti-gay activists are being quick to distribute the below video montage of photos of Bean with President Obama.

UPDATE II: Bean's former partner has now been arrested on the same charge.

The former boyfriend of Terrence P. Bean was arrested early Thursday on sex abuse charges stemming from the same alleged 2013 encounter with a 15-year-old boy at a hotel in Eugene. Kiah Loy Lawson, 25, was arrested at 1:15 a.m. at the Portland Police Bureau's Central Precinct and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center shortly after 2 a.m. He's accused of third-degree sodomy and third-degree sexual abuse. Lawson is expected to be transferred later Thursday to Lane County, where he was indicted, according to jail officials. His bail was set at $50,000. Detective Jeff Myers from the Portland's Sex Crimes Unit made the arrest, hours after police took Lawson's ex-boyfriend, Portland developer Terrence Patrick Bean, into custody Wednesday morning.

UPDATE III: LGBTQ Nation reporter Brody Levesque notes that the HRC has scrubbed Bean's name from their board of directors listing. Via Google's cache, here's how the top of that list looked recently.